To All:
We had another successful construction meeting last Saturday and made some good
progress. Here are the updates:
Airframe Team - Tom Savoie and the Airframe team completed the first layer of
fiberglass on the airframe tube and then vacuum-bagged the entire assembly. This was quite
an impressive operation. The fiberglass used was 8.5-oz fine weave (mil spec) cloth and
went onto the tube in a single 10-foot long by 50-inch wide sheet. At least 8 team members
were involved laying up the fiberglass and keeping the West Systems epoxy flowing. After
the glass was layed up, the giant vacuum bag was assembled and two vacuum pumps were
pressed into service to evacuate the air and seal the bag around the tube. Depending on
the quality of the first layer, a second layer of glass may or may not be necessary.
Fins and Wings - John Calvert and the Fins team also made some good progress. Full size
templates for both the rear fins and the wings were measured and cut out of foam board.
Then the fin template was used to transfer the outline to a sheet of 1/4-inch NorBond
honeycomb composite. Fin 'blanks' were cut from the composite material using a table saw,
and the blanks were laminated together using West epoxy to form the finished 1/2-inch
thickness. Next time we will cut out the first wing blanks, using 1/2-inch Norbond and
begin work on the wing tips and leading edges.
Nose Cone - Joe Grasso, who is heading up the Nose Cone team met with Mike Doyle and
myself, representing the Avionics team, to finalize several details on the electronics
bays. Close coordination between these two teams is required, since the electronics will
reside inside the nose cone coupler, which Joe is building. Several details regarding
access to the e-bays and static port design were finalized and both Teams are now able to
proceed with their projects.
Launch Equipment - A special thanks goes out to Lee Frakes who pitched in and
refurbished the launch relay boxes while all the other activity was taking place around
him. Thanks, Lee! We plan to fold the launch equipment maintenance into our construction
meetings, so help will always be needed on that "project".
Our next construction meeting will be held on Saturday, March 2nd. Don't forget the
Club meeting at Flight Safety this coming Thursday evening, 2/21, beginning at 7:00 PM.
For those who have pledged financial support for the Phoenix, please be prepared to make
your next 'payment' at the meeting.
Finally, it was certainly good to see Rick Norrgard at the construction meeting
Saturday. Glad you are feeling better, Rick.
That's all for now, see you Thursday night.
Hal
